Quoted By Roseanne Arnold- " The one who cares the most wins. I cared the most, that's how I knew I'd end up with everyone else waving the white flags and not me, that's how I knew I'd be the last person standing when it was all over."

Having missed seeing her show (I was busy taking care of my own children at that time and wasn't watching a lot of television), I wasn't sure what to expect. But I must have expected less because I was really surprised as I listened to Roseanne's own personal telling of her story. And I highly recommend listening to her rather than reading. Her writing style is very stream-of-consciousness and it takes hearing it in her own voice to get what she's saying. She's overcome so much to get to where she is and she doesn't pull any punches about where she came from and what she went through to attain her success. I leave this book wanting a followup to her more recent life happenings.

I really liked this book, but I think I liked her first book, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... better. Though, in this one she had less fear of the truth, wasn't afraid to get raw, and admit not only other's shortcomings, but her own...

Again, I was struck by the fact that she was so brilliantly intelligent, yet emotionally wounded, a poetess, a feminist, a mysticist, a flower child, a mother, a queen in her own world. All of these different parts of her enveloped her and sometimes threatened to take over who was truly "Roseanne".

I was shocked, actually, how the first season she had to fight so hard to get her character to be... well, HER. She had to fight tooth and nail not to be yet another Samantha or June, not to be what the act that had GOTTEN her the show was built around. Her biggest supporters were, at that time, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf. They stood by her when the rest of the studio loathed her for speaking her mind and fighting for her own truth. And, then there was Tom Arnold, who I actually gained a little respect for after reading this.

He was with her before she was a star, her best friend, her writing partner-- a man who silently was in love with her, but she was married to an emotionally manipulative drunk, who tried to constantly use her own children against her, and actually held secret meetings with the studio brass to conspire against her, as well as The Enquirer and her own children, telling them that their mother must love her "little job" more than them because she was no longer a stay-at-home Mom. (Despite the fact that he, himself, when left to watch the kids was oft times too drunk to even get them to school...) Of course, that's different than the general consensus at that time, that he attached himself to her coattails after her fame...

Though, things with Tom weren't all roses, either. She was in denial about his coke habit, but eventually through him getting help, was able to face her denial about her own, abusive and parasitic family. And that her father molesting not only her and her sisters, but her DAUGHTER, and saying "Call it molest, I can live with that-- that's just a woman being hysterical"... well, that was just sickening.

But she seemed to have come out the other end stronger for it-- though, she was still married to Tom at the end of this book, so I don't know what happened next... but all in all, despite her ascervic (and sometimes quite raunchy) wit), beneath that is a very strong, intelligent, and LOVING person, who I hope now is doing well.

I listened to this on cassettes. It was read by Roseanne, and you need to hear her read this. Some of her sentences are so complex and deep, and winding roads, that you need to hear how she mean the words to sound.

I was a fan of Roseanne, I thought she was witty, and biting and told it like it really is. Listening to her story helped me understand more about what was really going on in her life back then. At least from her point of view.